Organic Gardening: Lipton's New Tea Bag

I recently purchased some Lipton Wild Berry Tea for my ice tea. This is one of their "Premium Pyramid Teas." I was shocked to see the tea bags were the NYLON mesh pyramid shapes. Lipton's website goes on & on about how great this shape is for the tea, but says nothing about it's environmental impact. I was just shocked that a company would change to such non-biodegradable material. Supposedly, this brews such a better tea, but I bet it's just cheaper for them.

I've sent them an email, saying that I will not purchase any more Lipton Tea. And I mean it. I'll use the box I have, but now I'll have to cut each one open & shake out the tea before it goes into my compost.

Not that it really makes a difference--but I'm pretty sure the Pyramid tea bags are PET not nylon. Still plastic of course, but PET can be recycled in many areas so once you cut them open to put the tea in the compost pile I guess you can recycle the rest. I'm still not sure why they would have gone from a biodegradable tea bag to one made out of plastic though, seems to me that would upset a lot of people and not be good for business!

agree with you ecrane--it makes no sense! just at a time when we are getting a resurgence of conscience about waste! This would seem to be a good choice for cornstarch based bio plastic, if plastic it must be. realistically Nobody is going to cut open a tea bag and dump the tea so they can recycle the plastic People that would compost their tea bag, could do so. I don't 'think' the bag would disintegrate while brewing the tea...

Try using loose leaf tea instead. Lipton even used to sell it that way. It tastes better, it's cheaper, and you get a better selection. You can usually find pots with steel infusers built in for a reasonable price or even Chinese cups with a built-in ceramic infuser. I like the cheap little stainless pot I got from Lehman's with built-in steel infuser, like the ones you'd find in a Chinese restaurant. Easy to empty and clean. Or get a tea strainer to use with a regular pot.